FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Our First Sea Day

Today's blog post was brought to you by Lara

After a day of orientation, drills, and welcomes, today was the first sea day where we could participate in all the onboard activities the cruise offered. We started the day with a portion heavy breakfast at the Haven restaurant, where we were offered food from a menu as well as a small buffet assortment. After we stuffed ourselves with waffles and pancakes we explored the ship shortly before heading to Galaxy Pavillion where we purchased an hour pass for a variety of rides, activities, and mazes in virtual reality. An attraction that stood out was the 'Walk The Plank', a simulation of walking across a wooden plank on top of a high skyscraper - it didn't help that the ship was rocking from the strong winds, making it easier to feel out of balance. With some of us feeling queasy from the screens and rocking, we headed to the buffet with Oma and Opa for lunch and planned out the rest of our sea day.

After lunch, and a little bit of down time, we made our way to the Encore Speedway where we experienced much road rage due to some slow drivers in our group. It was now time for dinner where we ate at the BBQ Smokehouse, the large portioned food was ok but the excitement came with dessert. Feeling full from our cornbread, brisket, sausages and curly fries we ordered one dessert between the seven of us and it was lucky we did so as the banana pudding was huge. Stuffed from all the eating and minimal exercise we went to bed with full bellies,eager to explore more of the ship during the week to come.

Planning our day over breakfast at the Haven restaurant

Exploring the public spaces on the ship

Beautiful atrium but not so impressed that the casino took up most of deck 7 and is so open. You have to walk through to it to get from the front to the back of the ship